Check Out these Pics of a Shredded Tire – WITH GOOD TREAD!

We get questions like this occasionally, “My tire tread looked good, but my tire still blew out, why did that happen?”

In the images below, both tires have great tread and no signs of sidewall cracking, yet on a trip from Logan to American Fork, one of the tires blew. And it WASN’T from a nail!

So what’s the deal? Why are tires blowing out when they appear to be in great condition based on the tread?

It’s a matter of aging tires. The tread on the blown tire separated because the rubber broke down due to age even though the tread was in great condition. If we look at the tires closely, we can see a number showing 0905 meaning the tires were made in the 9th week of 2005. All tires made since 2000 have this type of code. Yours may be on the inside of your tire, but they all have them so take a minute and see how old yours are.

“OK, so how old can my tires be before I need to worry about replacing them?”

Well, even under perfect conditions (stored in a garage and rotated with the air pressure properly maintained) tires have an “expiration date” according to industry standards. As far as we’re concerned in Utah, based on our hot summers, cold winters, and salt on the roads, our tires generally remain safe to drive on for about 6 years or so. This is regardless of how much tread is left on the tire. We know it stinks to have to think about replacing tires that “still look good”, but it’s even less fun to have a tire violently shred at freeway speeds like our customer experienced last weekend!

Maintaining the air pressure is another way to help extend the life of your tires, whether they’re regularly driven on or not. We are more than happy to check your tire pressures quickly and for free Monday-Friday 7:30am-6:00pm.

And if, after looking and looking to find your tire date code you still can’t see it? Swing by and we’ll check it out right away!